Ofcom announces X commitment on illegal hate and terror content

The Online Safety Act has been somewhat controversial in its outlawing of content which in other countries is constitutionally protected. It was however designed to help keep people, especially children, safe online. One person’s free speech is another’s hate speech, and many governments have started adopted a more aggressive stance. Website operators in the U.S. such as 4chan have adopted a somewhat aggressive position against Ofcom’s enforcement.

X however, has decided to find a middle ground, presumably to protect its revenue from UK users. They made a public statement in relation to protecting UK users from illegal hate and terror content online:

1. “Expedited timescales for reviewing illegal hate and terror content. X will review and assess UK suspected illegal terrorist and hate content reported through its dedicated UK illegal content reporting tool on average within 24 hours of it being reported, to be calculated as a mean. As a backstop, it will review and assess at least 85% of UK suspected illegal terrorist and hate content reported through its dedicated UK illegal content reporting tool within a maximum of 48 hours. These targets, if met, will give UK users some of the strongest protections on X globally.
2. Engaging with experts regarding reporting systems for illegal hate and terror content. This is in response to concerns by some organisations who told us they had alerted multiple pieces of suspected illegal hate and terrorism content to X but were unclear if such reports were being received or actioned. 
3. Action against accounts operated by or on behalf of proscribed organisations. X will withhold access in the UK to accounts reported for posting UK illegal terrorist content, if it determines they are operated by or on behalf of a terrorist organisation proscribed in the UK.

X Statement (published by Ofcom)

Is it a little bit odd to only see this statement published by Ofcom rather than X directly, which may be suggestive that it was part of a negotiated settlement of sorts between the company and regulator. It is worth noting that the comments are very UK-specific and do not claim to do anything outside the UK in terms of online safety. Access to problematic content would be blocked “in the UK” and referring to “UK illegal terrorist content”. So as long as America is fine with it, it will stay online elsewhere.

X also agreed to submit ‘performance data’ to Ofcom on a quarterly basis in respect of these targets.

“Following intensive engagement carried out by Ofcom’s online safety team, X have committed to implementing stronger protections for UK users, which we will now monitor closely.

We have evidence that terrorist content and illegal hate speech is persisting on some of the largest social media sites. We are challenging them to tackle the problem and expect them to take firm action. This is of particular importance in the UK following a number of recent hate motivated crimes suffered by the country’s Jewish community.

These commitments are a step forward, but there’s a lot more to do. We’re grateful for the support we’ve received from civil society and other expert organisations to scrutinise these platforms, and we’ll continue working with them extensively to drive forward changes for people in the UK.

Our Grok investigation into X remains ongoing, which is looking at the company’s compliance with duties to deal with illegal content, and the systems it has in place to do that.”

Oliver Griffiths, Online Safety Group Director

This is the new world of the Internet, nationally segregated content due to differences in laws. Although many may see this as a restriction, it’s ultimately mirroring the physical world, where the laws of one country are applied in that country, and if you want to ‘do business’ there, you have to abide by its laws.

Ofcom began a compliance programme six months ago to evaluate the large social media companies and their systems designed for protecting users and reports. They believe this is imoprtant due to the content from such sites being potential precursors to hate crime incidents on the streets of the UK.

Ofcom said “Our broader compliance programme continues, reviewing the performance of major platforms against their duties to tackle this type of illegal content. As part of this work, we will be undertaking large-scale analysis into how swiftly and effectively platforms, including but not limited to X, deal with illegal hate and terrorism content once they become aware of it.”